Poetic justice: The Sharks will now play in the SAP Center
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_23395356/hp-pavilion-become-sap-center
First it was the San Jose Arena, then Compaq Center and now HP Pavilion. But the place hockey fans call the Shark Tank will soon officially be known as the SAP Center at San Jose.
City officials have finalized a deal with German software giant SAP, whose founder happens to be the San Jose Sharks' hockey team majority owner Hasso Plattner. A City Council vote is expected to be scheduled for June 18 at a committee meeting Wednesday afternoon. SAP was said to be interested in the naming rights back in March when HP's chief executive, Meg Whitman, was reported to be seeking an early exit from the deal....
But a city description of the upcoming agenda item described it as a deal between Hewlett-Packard, San Jose Arena Management and the city to terminate the current naming rights agreement and approve a new five-year deal with SAP Global Marketing Inc. to rename the San Jose Arena SAP Center at San Jose. The city would receive $1.675 million annually for a total of $8.375 million over the term of the deal.
The $162.5 million arena opened in 1993 and got $16.5 million worth of improvements in 2007. It has hosted the 1997 National Hockey League All-Star Game, the 1999 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four Championship, the annual SAP Open tennis tournament and the 1996 U. S. Figure Skating Championships. The arena also has been the venue for concerts by former Beatle Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand, as well as the Arena Football League's San Jose Sabercats and the National Lacrosse League's San Jose Stealth.
So anyone who buys Sharks tickets, especially playoff tickets
is now officially a SAP.